Comcast retracts criticism of state

Hours after announcing it is moving 1,000 call center jobs out of California, Comcast changed its mind Tuesday about the reason for the decision.

The move was a strategic decision by the company and not a reaction to a hostile business environment in California, Comcast said in its second public statement of the day.

The cable company is transferring the jobs — including 300 in Natomas, with the balance in Livermore and Morgan Hill — to Denver, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

The cable company handed out severance packages to its employees after making the announcement to employees Tuesday morning at the Sacramento Convention Center. The cuts will take effect Nov. 30.

The company initially blamed California’s business climate. Andrew Johnson, Comcast’s regional vice president of California, said in the company’s morning release: “We determined that the high cost of doing business in California makes it difficult to run cost-effective call centers in Northern California.”

A press release announcing the cuts included links to web sites and PowerPoint presentations critical of California business climate, including the California Chamber of Commerce’s “California Business Climate Survey Report.”

But in its retraction later Tuesday, the company said these reasons were “incorrect.”

“In order to run cost effective call centers that are focused on the customer experience, our customers will be served better in the long run by establishing specialized call centers focused on particular customer needs rather than on geography,” the later statement said.

Comcast officials did not explain why the company revised its explanation.

The change of direction left many business observers scratching their heads.

“My initial thought is that they chose to blame California to justify what they had already decided to do,” said Doug Elmets, owner of Elmets Communications, a public relations strategy firm in Sacramento.

Comcast seemed “more concerned about pointing fingers at California as they left than they were in cooperating to keep the jobs here,” said Brook Taylor, spokesman with GO-Biz, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

“They did not notify us that they were considering this. There would have been an opportunity to work together to find some solutions.”